Benea Reach Climb “The Mountain”

I’m listening to the new Benea Reach song, “The Mountain,” and I’m not especially feeling it. Kip W. and I used to worship the ground this band walked on, so I’m a bit surprised at my own reaction. I’m trying to determine whether this is because a) the band’s sound has changed, b) this style of metal is a whole lot less novel now than it was when the band put out their last album in 2008, c) my tastes have grown since then, or d) all of the above.

I’m gonna go with (d), in varying quantities: a heaping spoonfull of (b), with a dash of (a) and a pinch of (c). I’m listening to Benea Reach’s 2008 release Alleviat on Spotify right now for the first time in a while and I still find myself digging it, so clearly something is different about the band’s new music (although not too different). Independent of Benea Reach, I know for a fact that my tastes have changed over the course of five years (yours probably have too). But most of all, when Alleviat was released “djent” was not in the common lexicon and progressive music in this vein was a lot more exciting and new.

On the other hand, Benea Reach are easily 10x better than the myriad copycat Meshuggahcore bands of the world. And I’m digging “The Mountain” much more on my second pass than I did on the first. Check it out below and see what you think:

The new Benea Reach album Possession comes out on March 22nd via Spinefarm.